by:Leon Hendrix
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — The CEO of Cherry Health has admitted that staff members were involved in a testing line for the purposes of a CBS News report that aired on national television last week.
Earlier this week, Grand Rapids-based Cherry Health came under fire this week after a Project Veritas hidden camera exposé purported that video of lines for Cherry’s COVID-19 test site was staged with employees to make the site look busier than it was. The report segments filmed in Grand Rapids aired on “CBS This Morning” May 1.
Cherry Health CEO Tasha Blackmon admitted that mistakes were made in a company statement released Thursday evening,
Blackmon said in the written statement, “After conducting an internal investigation, we learned that a few staff were encouraged to pull their cars up in the testing line to provide a visual backdrop showing how busy the testing site can get."
She added, "This was done with the intention of protecting patient privacy since many of the patients scheduled for a COVID-19 test on that day declined to be filmed for HIPAA reasons. The individual responsible for this mistake has accepted responsibility and expressed deep remorse for this unfortunate situation.”
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